Saturday, May 21, 2016

Tribute to Shoelace







































Didn't see this coming. Every race has a story I guess. This one, just came untied.

Following the bizarre 5K, that wasn't a 5K, did make me remember my Orange Crush that PR shoes. They have only been worn in 5K's, but warming up and running that 3K last week they did feel really good. So, the cardinal rule of never wearing a new pair of shoes on race day, well I'm about to break it. Besides, it's not not a marathon, just a half!

Hometown Half Marathon, here we go! Though my hometown has nothing to do with Michigan football, it's the spot I fell in love with it. So many Saturdays were spent watching games, cheering, bleeding blue growing up. Leaving for school, getting older, don't commit as much time as back then to the Maze and Blue, but I certainly still follow them, even in the down years (which the ship has been righted). One player who really deserves more credit than he gets, both for persevering and being put in awful situations in those rough years is Denard "Shoelace" Robinson. Why did they call him Shoelace? Because, he never tied his shoes! He was so fast, he must have been on to something, but who would ever try that? Guess that should make me, Pantless! Hang with me, I know this is a stretch.

Last year was a fluke, finished this race second. Not second in my age group, second overall! Even though this is a small race, for a small town, really didn't think success like that would repeat itself again this year, but obviously to be on the safe side, something made me wear my PR shoes.

Go Bluuuuuuuue! Goes the gun. First mile slightly faster than I wanted, but at this point felt comfortable that nobody bolted and were specs in the distance. Sixth overall and knew for sure two of the people ahead would die out, that only left three others. Mile two brought some separation between the lead two guys as they pulled away some. Really wanted to stay relaxed until after mile four, but felt it was best to keep them in range. About the same time my pace was lowering, my left shoe came untied. Now, I've had a shoe malfunction one time before in a race and even though it was much later in the race, felt stopping screwed me up, not making that mistake again.

Soon mile four is here, what does it bring? Oh, now my right shoe is also untied! This is where that lesson bell dings, never had this problem with these shoes because you've never gone this far in these shoes! This is when I had my first thought of Denard Robinson. Still in fourth place overall, but it sounds like somebody is also right behind me! Or maybe it's simply the noise of my laces whipping.

Mile nine is where it started, this odd sensation in my left foot, big toe specifically. It wasn't pain, but I could tell that my foot must be sliding forward in my shoe and my toe is smashing the front of my shoe. I wish common sense would have kicked in, I should have stopped and tied both my shoes. But I could still see all three runners ahead of me. It should have been obvious that they weren't going to die out, but maybe they were dealing with their own issues and hopefully worse than mine. Based on my foot trouble, knew I was going to begin to get slower. No, not stopping, body and mind said fight through it.

Mile twelve, I was in some major pain, still didn't stop, kept dealing with it. By now, my right foot was bothering me too, most likely compensating for the other foot. The final downhill about killed me, who decided to put that hill here? My toe was throbbing, each step felt like a hammer and smashing it.

Crossing the finish line, it almost pains me that ended up being about a minute slower than my PR, yet had I worn my normal shoes, probably would have done much better. Never did catch those other guys, so fourth overall, but turns out none of them were in my age group, so still ended up first for that.

In other news, CT has been on a pretty good running streak lately and had been trash talking that she was going to beat me today. Well, I'm happy to say she didn't, though it would have been my shoelaces fault had she, but she ended up coming being first overall female! As impressive as that is, she actually won prize money, that's a first too! Very proud of her though, she donated her winnings back to the race because it also is to help stomp out our least favorite c word. You know, stomp it out like what it feels just happened to my big toe!

Though I didn't PR or win overall, I do think I set some kind of record for 11.1 miles with untied shoes, Shoelace style!  

Saturday, May 14, 2016

World Record...Pink Slip



Wearing a pink shirt for a good cause and showing support for a wonderful friend, no problem. Braving low 40's and probably closer to 30's for a race, heck yeah! That's perfect for me and isn't sacrificing anything! Letting a stranger spray paint my head pink...now that's commitment!

Today is the Race for the Cure. Most races, there is uneasiness worried about times, distance, any number of things. None of that today, but it was a different and somber start to the race as moments before speakers spoke of losses from that awful c word. Not exactly a raw raw type start, instead we'll call it a calm start.

As the National Anthem played, gazed at the biker in orange and found myself thankful they had a bike official for this course. I did research the route, for twenty seconds, and had a vague idea, but it had more turns than I wanted to put thought into. Yeah, this is an omen, you can guess where this is going.

F-yooooooou (c word) goes the gun. Out the ball field we go. It wasn't too long before I was probably in fifth. While hardly what I'd called 5K trained, certainly wasn't going to set any records, curious to know where my 5K speed is. Soon the lead biker and runner are headed back, strange. Runner logic kicked in and though I thought it was odd, who am I to judge, so I turned where they did. In my head, I figured the game plan was to loop this section again, then we'd be sent out further on the trail. Sure enough, looped a small section again, before a volunteer enthusiastically told us almost done and pointed us into the ball field. Okay, this isn't right. At this point the guy in front of me and I started chatting about something is really wrong with this. As we entered the stadium, watched the lead runner cross the line. Yup, wrong. Checked my watch and hadn't even hit two miles yet. To cross or not to cross, that is the question! We ended up kind of laughing and crossing, once across, told him was might as well keep going and get our full distance in. So, back out the stadium we went.

Back on the course, it was obvious where the mistake was made. Instead of staying on the trail and crossing a bridge, the lead biker turned at a cone that was just before that bridge. As we cross the bridge and took a small turn, there was a water tent with a few very confused volunteers. My comment passing them, "traffic is going to be very lite today". We reached the official turn around spot, a cone, go figure, On the way past the water tent again, "Think we'll be the last runners you see today too".

I've wanted to break into the 19's for a 5K since I started and it took tons of work to finally pull it off. Like I said, haven't put any kind of 5K training in for a long time, well looking at the final results, 12:15! Going from 20's 19's crazy hard! Going from 19's to 12's, kind of easy! Later that day, I looked up what the world record for a 5K is, 12:37! Not only did I set a PR, but a WR! Crazy!

There *might* be an asterisk with those results. It really is unfortunate that something like this happened. Most people had fun with it, didn't seem to be anybody too upset about it. There will always be other 5K's, so it's not like it would be hard to find another one. Overall, it is for a good cause and fun, and for that, I'll put up with anything, even in pink. Now that lead biker, he might be getting the pink slip!  




Sunday, May 8, 2016

The Sixth Sense







































It's time again, my nemesis. The beatings will continue until morale improves, or something like that. This battle is so one sided, it's to the point the thought of "winning" doesn't even enter my mind anymore, it simply is how to minimize the beating.

Spent extra time attempting to find "it" prior to the start. Stretches, favorite tunes, pretending this is really a different race. The temps are on the cool side, but I know the weather report, it will be warm by finish. Knowing that, it makes sense to run this conservative making sure something is left for the end. My Sixth Sense tingles and reminds me that it's been tried before and ended in disaster too. If the beatings are going to continue, what happens if I run without fear? Lets make this a fight!

"I see dead people" goes the start of the gun. Normally, I start behind the pace I want. Today, at the pace I want, which I know is crazy, but I also know I can bank a few miles, then slow down a bit. The early miles are uneventful. Favorite turn is heading through the center of Kalamazoo where there are a few familiar faces and the crowd support helps. After the split between the half and full course, things really thin out, much less fun and much more work.

Wanting to stay minimal, didn't bring music. This is the point where it would be nice because for the next twenty miles, it's going to be kind of lonely. Sun is now up and I do have a shadow though. Coming out of campus my shadow and I are gaining on two women, one in a tutu. These two annoyed me prior to start. Can't say specifically what they did, but anybody in a tutu should be beaten, regardless. I mention to my shadow, tuck in behind me, I'll block the wind in this next stretch, figuring I'd be dying out at some point anyway, but wanted to give my shadow every chance I could to save some energy to beat the tutu girls.

Out of the wind, in the next section, my shadow started talking back. At this point we were about eight miles in, dropping 7:30 miles. Turns out my shadow lives basically in the neighborhood we are currently running through at the moment. She helped hire the one friendly face I saw downtown. Has about the same PR's. All of this is odd because I don't remember ever seeing her running before. Then she asks my name and immediately asks if CT is my wife. Of course Shadow knows her, everybody does! Small world. By this time we pass mile twelve and both get major support from Ms. Positive (see previous blog entry).

Crossed the halfway point at an insane time of 1:39 something. In my best marathon, I don't think put in a time like this. On this course, with it warming up, I know this is a horrible idea. At this point, I let my Shadow go. Continuing to clock under 8 minute miles, would result in a quick and painful death.

From sixteen to twenty is the death march. Going out hard was probably foolish, but these miles were brutal sun miles and I'm convinced they were the real problem. At twenty I was feeling pretty miserable and knew the end was looming. Technically, I was still putting it decent times for miles, but I knew the good times were about to be done.

Mile twenty-two brought a Superstar face asking if I could use anything, "a Coke!". Unfortunately, poor planning didn't make that a reality. Around the next corner waits a smiling CT. While very glad to see her, it's a bitter sweet because I'm feeling very miserable and I also KNOW what it means with her here. "Hun, I'm done" leaves my mouth, her response "You're not quitting on me". Did that sound like a crack of a whip? It should have.

How to make the Kalamazoo Marathon harder? Well, I don't think it's possible to add more hills. They always could move the start time back even more to ensure we get the hottest possible temps. Or simply add CT as coach for the final miles.

The beatings did continue, every time I wanted to stop. The course that beats me every year, now has an accomplice, except now it's a tug of war, with my body. On side, Kzoo wants to win again. The other side, CT wants me to win. I'll admit it, I wanted to strangle CT, problem is I wouldn't be able to catch her and if I did I wouldn't have the strength to do much damage. She willed me across the line, or maybe threatened.

CT is born to coach, or maybe punish. Either one, she's good at it. Without her, never would have gotten the time I did. Crushed my previous best on this course by fourteen minutes.

Kalamazoo, #6 sense is in the books.